The Portland daily press., 1887-09-05
THE BIG YACHTS.
Dates for the Trial Races and the
Americas Cup Regatta.
Ingenious Computations Win Races
for Both Volunteer and Thistle.
The MayfIower Gives the Scotch
man a Chance to Race.

NEW YORK, Sept. 3.-The Thistle and
Mayfiower had short race in the harbor to-
day. The meeting was accidental, and nei-
ther yacht could claim to have outsailed the
other, the two making apparently the same
progress.
Coming Events.
The committee has selected these dates for
the trial races to determine which yacht
shall defend the Americas cup.
sde hrs5 sbe New - S the
Second race-Sept. 18th, at 1890 a. m, 20
miles to windward or leeward. and return from
% Third raee"Sept. 18th, at 10. 80 a. M, triangu-.
ship.
tee, If they so elect, have the optien of ordering
the sloops to sail also Sept. IA, 16, and 1S.
The following are the days on which the
races for the Americas cup will be sailed.
barring unavoidable accidents to either
yacht:
First race-Sept. 27th, at 10 a. M, over inside
course of New York Yacht Club
Second race-Sept 29th, at 1890 a. m, 20
miles to windward or leeward and return, from
Scotland or Sandy Hook ightship, as will be de-
termined on the morning Of the race.
Third race-Oct 1st, at 1880 a. m, triangular
course of 40 miles, starting at Scotland ightship.
NtSStuo6o SotBP0tiSOUos
The American correspondent Of the Lon
don Field in closing an article on the chances
of the Thistle and Volunteer says: at will
strike you at once as curious how very close
this Volunteers beating the Mayflower is to
the average beating of the Irex by the This
tie, l think it was between nine and ten
minutes on an average over a 80 mile course.
This furnishes us with some reasonably clear
data for estimating probabilities as between
the Thistle and the Volunteer. We know
that the Mayfower is better than the Puri-
tan by about six minutes, and the Puritan is
better than the Genesta, but the Trek is also
better than the Genesta, say three minutes.
This would leave the Mayflower faster than
the lrex by three minutes. and the problem
would stand thus: The Volunteer is min
utes AZ seconds better than the Mayfower,
that is minutes and 80 seconds better than
the Irex, difference of 2 minutes u seconds
in favor of the American slo0p in such
weatbera as they have had here OF course
this is mere speculation; still it is specula-
tion founded on facts, and it proves that the
races for the Americas cup this year will be
quite close"
Generally this correspondent takes a fair
view of yachting, though at times he has
leaned little to the cutter type. His con-
cluslons that the races will be quite close are
shared by the prominent yachtsmen of this
country.
A writer in the Herald, ON the other hand,
by similar series of comparisons, proves
the Thistle the faster boat. He says: snow
1t is claimed that the Thistle is % minutes 80
seconds faster than the Genesta over a 30
mile course, or27 seconds per mile, which re-
duced to the distance before used gives the
Thistle speed of Is minutes greater than
the Genesta over 40-mile course. But we
know the Puritan is also minutes 20 sec
onds faster than the same vessel over the
same distance, the difference of which gives
the Thistle speed of minutes 40 seconds
greater than the Puritan. On the same basis
the Volunteer was shown to be minutes
faster than the Puritan over 40-mile course
Comparing now the gains of the
Thistle and Volunteer over the same vessel
and distance, and the result is the Thistle is
faster than the Volunteer by 40 seconds over
a 40-mile course"